Your query pattern made with the "Search" does match the Filter Pattern Made with "Album List".

An "Album List"-generated autoplaylist forces-sort based on the branches' sort pattern. A "Search"-generated autoplaylist doesn't have any kind of structure, so a declared sort pattern is necessary.

I mean syntax behavior then.

Anyway, I'm not sure you understood my point. An autoplaylist generated with Albumlist can use any syntax except "SORT BY", which throws a popup that says "sort operations not available in this context". If you view the playlist in foobar, you can select all the songs and you CAN sort the playlist. My question is, why are Albumlist-based autoplaylists blocked from carrying out a function automatically that the user can do manually?

I suppose I should reword my question a bit:Why are there 2 completely different kinds of autoplaylists included with a blank foobar installation which don't accept the same syntax?